Detroit Pistons: 5 outside-the-box coaching candidates

Detroit Pistons: 5 outside-the-box coaching candidates

Coby Karl

Why he’s “outside-the-box”: He’s not

Why it’s not going to happen: He needs more experience

Coby Karl is the son of legendary coach George Karl and the current head coach of the Delaware BlueCoats, who just won the G-League title.

Karl has all of the traditional coaching attributes in that he is the son of a coach who was a journeyman during his own career and has since had three successful stints as a coach in the G-League.

Karl went straight into the G-League as a coach, so it’s likely he’ll get a shot someday given his resume and lineage, and Troy Weaver has shown a preference for nepo-babies after signing Buddy Boeheim to a two-way contact, so don’t rule Karl out!

Niele Ivey

Why she’s “outside-the-box”: Would be the first woman head coach in the NBA. Would be coaching her son.

Why it’s not going to happen: She’s only been coaching for three seasons in the women’s NCAA

If the Detroit Pistons really want to make some headlines, then they could definitely do so by not only hiring the first woman to be a head coach in the NBA, but one who also happens to be the mother of one of their up and coming stars.

Niele Ivey is currently the head coach at Notre Dame, where she has amassed a 61-25 record overall. She is a former NCAA champion herself and played five seasons in the WNBA, including for the Detroit Shock.

She knows hoops and how to coach it, and Jaden Ivey gives her a lot of the credit for his success and for identifying things he needs to work on.

She’s already in the audience cheering on her son for a lot of the games, so why not just put her on the bench? No mother has ever coached her son in professional basketball, and who knows, maybe someday Ivey could be the first, at least as an assistant.